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Saucefly Food Subscription Box Review + Coupon– December 2016

Lindsey Morse
ByLindsey MorseDec 27, 2016 | 10 comments

saucefly-december-2016-box

SauceFly
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Saucefly is a monthly subscription box that includes “restaurant quality sauces, snacks, dressings, cocktail mixers, sweets and other savory surprises.” Saucefly boxes are packed with ice, and all included items have a shelf life of at least 7 days.

About a week before boxes ship, Saucefly members are emailed a shopping list that lets them know what additional items will be needed in order to make the month’s suggested recipes.

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Saucefly is owned by Chef Sara Willis, a Eugene, Oregon-based chef who has been cooking professionally for the last 25 years. She uses locally-sourced, in season, and organic products in her cooking, and posts how-to videos on the Saucefly blog that demonstrate how to use Saucefly’s sauces.

This box was sent to us at no cost for review. (Check out the review process post to learn more about how we review boxes.)

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The Subscription Box: Saucefly

The Cost: $100 (Eugene, OR residents receive a shipping credit of $15 per box. Shipping is free to states west of the Colorado Rockies. Shipping to the east coast is $25.)

ACTIVE DEAL: Save $20 off your first box!
CODE: MSA20

The Products: Organic, chef-prepared sauces, dips, marinades, cocktail mixers, dressings, and more.

Ships to: U.S.

Check out all of our Saucefly reviews more gourmet food boxes in the Food Subscription Box Directory!

Keep Track of Your Subscriptions: Add this box to your subscription list or wishlist!

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This box came with an info sheet that provided some information about the month’s sauces and a few recipes. (More detailed information is available on the Saucefly site.)

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Moxie Mixers Spiced Tamarind Margarita

This month’s Saucefly box was packed full of goodies, and I decided to start by sampling the month’s featured cocktail mixer, Spiced Tamarind Margarita. I salted the rim of a rocks glass and combined the margarita mix with clear tequila. I’ve never seen tamarind used in margarita mix before, but it works really well. My drink was sweet, sour, bright, and tart. I followed the recipe on the bottle, but I think I could have easily doubled the amount of liquor— the mix is definitely concentrated enough to work in a strong drink.

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Green Goddess Dressing

Both of the Saucefly boxes I’ve received so far have contained salad dressing, and I think it’s a great addition to the box. I love eating salad, but I sometimes get into a rut of tossing the same ingredients together into my bowl and topping them with the same dressing. Receiving a new handmade dressing each month has been a nice way of spicing things up! I love creamy dressings, and green goddess is a favorite of mine. I’ve made it once or twice myself, but it’s kind of a lot of work (and it requires a fair number of ingredients). It was a real treat to be able to enjoy homemade green goddess dressing without having to lift a finger. Saucefly’s recipe is excellent, too: creamy, herby, and a little garlicky.

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Yellow Aleppo Pepper Spicy Salsa

I’ve been on a kick of using hot sauce in the morning on scrambled eggs, so that’s how I decided to try out this one. I found it to be a little spicier and more flavorful than my go-to sauce, Cholula. I’m a fan.

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Veracruzana Sauce

Veracruzana sauce is a new discovery for me. I did a little research and discovered that it’s a classic Mexican sauce from the Port of Veracruz area that has a strong Mediterranean influence from the Spanish who settled the area. Chef Sara recommends using this sauce to top fish, chicken, or shrimp, and I opted to serve it over pan-seared tilapia.

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Wow. This sauce was incredible! It’s made with olives, capers, tomatoes, and onion, and it was bursting with flavor. The salty, brininess from the olives and capers makes this sauce seem very Mediterranean, but there’s a hint of spice and piquancy that’s uniquely Mexican. It was delicious over flakey tilapia! I’ve been thinking about this dish since I made it, so I think I’m going to have to try and recreate the sauce at home. I really loved it.

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Cranberry-Pear Chutney

This box also contained a jar of Cranberry-Pear Chutney, which is a nice, seasonal choice for this time of year. It’s vinegary and a little sweet, and I think it’ll be great with cheese. I’m saving this to serve on a cheese platter on Christmas day.

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Ginger Soy Marinade

This marinade is a mix of cilantro, ginger, tamari, garlic, smoked paprika, basil, sesame oil, and olive oil. I haven’t yet had a chance to cook with this yet, but it smells amazing. It’s recommended for use with chicken, fish, or skirt steak. I think I’m going to use it to marinate skirt steak for a post-Christmas grill out.

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Marbella Sauce

Marbella sauce is another new discovery for me. (I love discovering new dishes in subscription boxes!) It’s made with plums and olives, and the provided instructions are pretty simple: marinate chicken overnight and then bake. As recommended, I used skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs and basted them several times while cooking.

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I thought the combination of plums and olives might not work for me, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. It was delicious— a little sweet, a little salty, and very flavorful.

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Nogada Sauce

This sauce is made from walnuts, goat cheese, milk, white bread, and sherry, and Saucefly recommends using it to make Chile Nogada, a dish of stuffed poblano chiles that’s topped with Nogada sauce and sprinkled with pomegranate seeds. I’m not really a fan of goat cheese, so my husband was happy to adopt this sauce and eat it on my behalf. He ended up using it as a topping for chicken, and (while I’m sure it’s not at all authentic) he thought it was delicious.

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Demi Glace

Saucefly always includes a few instructional videos for the items in the box, which I think is really helpful. Saucefly recommends using this Demi Glace over beef wellington, and it was VERY helpful to have a video to reference while I was cooking since I’ve never made beef wellington before. I ended up using bits and pieces from several recipes I found online, but the video was especially useful when it came to assembling the wellingtons and wrapping them in puff pastry. I’m a visual learner, so watching someone do it first made it easy for me to replicate.

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I couldn’t have been happier with how they looked when they came out of the oven!

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My husband and I made these together, and we were absolutely thrilled with them! The pastry was golden and crisp, the steak was perfectly cooked, and they looked restaurant ready. Best of all was the demi glace; it was thick, rich, and full of flavor. This was such a luxurious meal and so much fun to make!

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Caramel Sauce

Next up, I received a jar of homemade organic caramel sauce. I heated it up and drizzled some over ice cream and was not disappointed. It’s great.

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Chocolate & Toasted Hazelnut Cookie Dough

Rounding out this month’s box is a big tub of cookie dough!

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I balled up a few mounds of dough and popped them in the oven.

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When they started to brown around the edges (but were still soft in the middle), I took them out to cool.

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They were bursting with chocolate and nuts, and the flavor was nice, but the consistency was just a little bready for my taste. Still, they were pretty tasty, and I think cookie dough is a great item to send this time of year. It’s nice to have a ready-to-bake dessert on hand for the holidays.

Verdict: This is my second box from Saucefly, and I’m so impressed. Both boxes have been packed full of fresh, organic, and delicious homemade goodies, and I love having my fridge stocked with organic, chef-made foods. The cost per item breaks down to about $9, which I think is definitely fair for organic, chef-made products. I’m kind of obsessed with this box, and I love that it’s introduced me to some new sauces and encouraged me to learn how to cook some new dishes! I highly recommend it for home cooks looking to spice up their cooking!

What do you think of Saucefly?

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SauceFly monthly subscription box is chef prepared, 100%organic restaurant quality: sauces, marinades, cocktail mixers, cookie dough, sweet stuff, salad dressings, specialty extras like local salts, nuts, fresh packed fish. Everything you need to add a few vegetables and protein of your choice to cr... read more.
Lindsey Morse
Lindsey Morse
Lindsey is a professional baker, cold brew coffee addict, and rosé aficionado who loves writing about food and wine. When she’s not sharing her love of subscription boxes with the world, you’ll find her in the podcasting studio, perfecting her cake decorating techniques, or cursing her way through the New York Times daily crossword puzzle.

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10 comments

Michelle

That beef wellington is gorgeous!!!! It looks so appetizing, you did a wonderful job.

That said, I feel like that price is exorbitant for things I could easily find at TJ Maxx. I realize everyone doesn’t live close to shopping like that but still.

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MeeshelbyO

Luckily I live WEST of Colorado so wouldn’t have to pay the $25 shipping. However the $100 is a bit steep for me right now. I have tried a few of these types of boxes in the past and while I LOVE them and think they are well worth the money, my husband considers them a total waste and doesn’t want me to order anything like this ever again haha. But then he grew up on steak and potatoes. Not fancy foods. I’m slowly bringing him around to trying new things!

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Lily

What are the dates written on the jar labels?

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sara willis

expiration dates!

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Sara

I ordered this box after reading Lindsay’s last review. Yum, yum,yum! I think it’s for more advanced cooks, but she gives you lots of great ideas.

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Connie

I signed up for 3 months with a free special gift which was caramel sauce, maple syrup and the marinade. My first full box will be January and can hardly wait. I really need to stop reading your foodie reviews as you do such an incredible job with accurate details and truly make these boxes shine.

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Wendy

I can buy way more than that for $125 locally. I don’t get some of these sub boxes.

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sara willis

I guess the difference about this box, it isn’t really the fact that you might be able to find these sauces at a restaurant and order a side togo? The idea is that you do not have to buy a quantity of each specific item in order to create the sauce, the actual cost would be much higher, imagine for example a Marbella sauce (this is not available pre-made in any store) and you would need to purchase organic: prunes, capers, olive oil, brown sugar, white wine, bay leaves, fresh oregano, red wine vinegar just to make your single sauce, that is at least $25./ worth of ingredients, so actually for the busy home chef this is a great value.

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Heathery

I agree. I guess maybe it’s a good deal if you live in a super rural area with no organic options, but I live in a city.

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Zo

I really, really, really want to try this sub but $125 is too rich for me.

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